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Short filmTranscript
00:00I was a slave. Yet every night, I had to take Luna's place and sleep with the Alpha.
00:04On the bed, I begged him to mark me and make me one of his mates.
00:08Please, make me your wife.
00:11What are you thinking?
00:14You're nothing but a slave.
00:16I close my eyes. Every wolf in the pack knows,
00:19Kaylin doesn't just love Lady Vivian, he worships her.
00:22So the next morning, I walked straight to the pack matriarch and kneeled before her.
00:27I volunteered to marry her eldest son, Kaylin's dying brother.
00:30Firstly shocked, then the pack matriarch's eyes filled with tears.
00:35After the ghost marriage is done, you'll have to keep Widowsville for your mate forever.
00:40My good child, have you truly thought this through?
00:45I will have no regrets.
00:46Alpha Kaylin and Lady Vivian had gone deathly pale.
00:49On the full moon night, Kaylin came to Vivian's room again.
00:53I watched them through the crack in the door, his voice low and honeyed,
00:56her laugh like silver.
00:58Vivian left to wash up, cheeks ruined with wanting.
01:01Before she went, she killed every candle, as always.
01:05An hour later, I stepped into the dark.
01:07His scent hit me first, and my traitorous body answered,
01:10heart slamming, skin tight.
01:12Why are you so cold?
01:15I was outside, watching the snow.
01:18Truth is, I'd been shivering at the threshold in a thin slip for an hour,
01:22waiting for her signal like a good little ghost.
01:26You smelled.
01:27A pause.
01:28My heart stopped.
01:29The tincture.
01:30So nice.
01:32His mouth found mine in the dark.
01:34His hardness reached my soul.
01:43Before dawn, I knelt at Vivian's feet and recited him.
01:47Every whisper.
01:48Every mark blooming purple on my throat.
01:50Her expression curdled.
01:52Then she walked back into his arms.
01:54Kaelin caught her hair around one lazy finger.
01:57You've been sneaking out to find yourself another wolf.
01:59She swatted him, pouting prettily, as if she were the one.
02:03Vivian was beautiful, and chronically, devastatingly fragile.
02:06Kaelin saw her at the spring hunt gathering.
02:09He fell instantly.
02:10Offered her the first mate rank before the night was over.
02:13Perfect together.
02:14Everyone said so.
02:15As her bonded handmaid, I was genuinely happy for them.
02:19Until their bonding night.
02:23Three nights in a row.
02:25No completed bond.
02:26No mating mark.
02:27Overnight, Vivian became the pack's favorite joke.
02:30Desperate, Vivian invented the switch.
02:33Every night, candles out, handmade substitutes.
02:36Masking tinctures rubbed into my skin until I smelled like her ghost.
02:40Of all her handmaids, only I was a viable double.
02:44Vivian and I were built from the same blueprint.
02:46The same narrow waist.
02:47The same pale slope of shoulder and throat.
02:50Side by side in daylight, the resemblance was unsettling.
02:53In total darkness, with the masking tinctures working through my skin,
02:57his wolf couldn't tell the difference.
02:59What Vivian hadn't accounted for, I was not fragile.
03:03She broke under Kaelin's hands.
03:05I did not.
03:06What she couldn't endure, I simply survived.
03:09Body learning the architecture of his need.
03:11Learning to anticipate it.
03:13Relax.
03:14Only three years.
03:16My body will recover.
03:17Then I will give you enough gold to live well outside the mansion.
03:21Think about it.
03:22My whole family's safety rested in her hands.
03:24I had no choice.
03:26One hour later, Vivian and Kaelin finally rose.
03:29I returned to my quarters briefly,
03:31then went in to lay out the morning meal.
03:36Why are you dressed like that?
03:38I didn't know how to answer.
03:39I pressed my lips together.
03:41Kaelin bit.
03:42Hard.
03:43Darling, you've forgotten Selena is mute.
03:46I nodded quickly.
03:47Serving Vivian meant constant proximity to Kaelin,
03:50and she was terrified of exposure.
03:52So she declared me mute.
03:54The entire pack believed it.
03:57Your little mute is striking.
03:58Sad, almost, how pretty she is.
04:00And what exactly does my alpha mean by that?
04:03Has she caught your eye?
04:04I haven't blamed you for anything yet,
04:06and you're already turning on me.
04:09Kaelin had pushed too far last night.
04:11I'd wept myself hoarse,
04:13then bitten him hard.
04:15He'd walked through silver and hellfire to earn his title,
04:19scars mapping him from throat to hip.
04:21He wouldn't care about a few teeth marks.
04:24This whole performance was foreplay.
04:26I don't know how much time passed.
04:29You insolent thing!
04:30You dared bite him?
04:31Are you challenging me?
04:33I had no time to defend myself.
04:35Vivian had me bound,
04:36dragged to the supply outbuilding.
04:38No food, no water.
04:40Kaelin had left for the border territories.
04:43However long he was gone,
04:44I stayed locked up.
04:45I was barely breathing
04:46when my sister found a way through.
04:49Briar had bribed the guard,
04:51slipped a bowl of broth under the door.
04:53She was my younger sister.
04:54Sister, what did you do to make the lady so angry?
04:56Briar, when will Kaelin be back?
04:59The guards say tonight,
05:00and he's going straight to the ladies' room.
05:03What else was happening in the mansion?
05:05The alpha-haired, his wolf spirit, is fading again.
05:07The pack healers say there's nothing left to do.
05:09They're preparing the rates.
05:10Lucian, the elder brother,
05:11cursed since birth,
05:13fading,
05:13never anchored to this world.
05:15He's never taken a mate.
05:17The matriarch doesn't want him to cross alone.
05:18She's looking for someone willing to complete a spirit bond.
05:22A spirit bond with a dying alpha heir
05:24meant grieving him forever.
05:26No high-ranking female would consent.
05:28Not even the lower-ranked handmaids.
05:30At dusk, they released me.
05:32I'd be needed that night.
05:33Selina, I was impulsive.
05:35I meant to release you hours ago,
05:37but things got away from me.
05:39Don't hold it against me.
05:40Of course not, my lady.
05:41My lady, it has been three years.
05:44When will I leave the pack mansion?
05:46You want to leave?
05:47Yes.
05:47My body hasn't healed.
05:48Kaelin still needs you.
05:50If you insist on leave,
05:51I'll simply use Briar instead.
05:52Your sisters.
05:53The voice, the build.
05:54Close enough.
05:55How old is she?
05:56Thirteen or fourteen?
05:57Then,
05:58could Kaelin at least give me a rank?
06:01Reaching for status now?
06:04If I wanted Kaelin to take a new mate,
06:06I have a hundred candidates.
06:08You would never make that list.
06:10Don't bother trying to go through Kaelin directly.
06:12You're a convenience to him.
06:16Even if you ended up in his quarters permanently,
06:19I could have you removed with a single word.
06:23But every unmated female is supposed to be matched eventually.
06:27Eventually?
06:28Was I supposed to be her substitute?
06:30In bed?
06:31For the rest of my life?
06:33The gatekeeper's son is your age.
06:35When you turn sixteen next year, I'll arrange the match.
06:37The gatekeeper's son.
06:39A man with a child's mind.
06:41And fists like hammers.
06:43Hitting because it was the only thing he knew.
06:46Only by being bound to someone that broken,
06:48would I remain useful.
06:50And too far gone to threaten her.
06:52Kaelin returned.
06:54To find me kneeling.
06:55You're home!
06:56You must be exhausted!
06:58This girl broke the crystal chalice from the Western Alliance.
07:01I've had her kneeling.
07:02Kaelin stepped over me, without a glance.
07:05What's the status on my brother?
07:07I've asked every unmated female in the pack.
07:10A spirit bond sounds like a curse to them.
07:12None of the young wolves will agree.
07:14What's there to agree about?
07:15Find a female, threaten someone she loves, and it's done.
07:18That kind of coercion would be hard to hide from your mother.
07:21Enough gold and fear will find a willing body.
07:25And if you handle this well,
07:28my mother might finally look at you differently.
07:32Ben.
07:33Every time Kaelin came back from the border,
07:35he spent the whole night making up for lost time.
07:38He was an alpha who'd spent weeks at war.
07:41He came home hungry.
07:42And he made that hunger my problem.
07:46That night, I gave him everything.
07:48Pushed past my own limits to match him.
07:51Why so eager tonight?
07:52Did you miss me?
07:54I rarely initiated.
07:55He noticed.
07:56Good girl.
07:58Near dawn,
07:59I came back to myself in pieces.
08:03Trying to run again?
08:07My wolf has always been sent sensitive.
08:13I've known about your lady's little switch since the beginning.
08:16No wonder.
08:17He grew bolder every time.
08:19Which meant he never held back.
08:21It was all for me.
08:23Then why won't you give me a rank?
08:25A rank?
08:27She's the one who brought you here.
08:28I'm not going to be the one to claim her handmaid.
08:31That would fracture our bond.
08:33She was right.
08:33A she-wolf, taken for free.
08:36Why give her a title?
08:37What grows in the dark, stays small.
08:41Speechless with joy?
08:42Thank you for your generosities, Alpha.
08:44I'm afraid I don't have the kind of luck to deserve it.
08:47You've shared my bed for years.
08:49Don't get ideas above your station.
08:51He didn't like greedy she-wolves.
08:53He had others.
08:54Bonded females.
08:55All with bloodlines.
08:57Gifts from allied packs.
08:59And yet, since Vivian came,
09:01he never touched them.
09:02The pack praised him for devotion.
09:04And he wore that praise like armor.
09:07A handmaid, born to serve,
09:10was never meant to stand beside him.
09:12The colder I became,
09:14I was born low.
09:16I don't deserve a rank.
09:17And I don't belong in your quarters.
09:19I only hope you and the lady
09:20are devoted to each other until the end.
09:22The next morning,
09:23Briar heard of Vivian's plan
09:24to marry me off to the gatekeeper's son.
09:26We served her faithfully.
09:27How can she be this cruel?
09:30That brute would be a slow death.
09:32The thought lingered,
09:33then twisted into something darker.
09:36If I couldn't escape fate,
09:37I would choose it.
09:39I will take the spirit bond with Lucien.
09:41The matriarch stared,
09:43then broke into astonished relief.
09:45She asked my name,
09:46my birthdate,
09:47my bloodline.
09:48The pack shaman consulted the moon charts
09:50and looked up, nodding.
09:51This female's spirit signature
09:53aligns with the heirs
09:54in a way I have not seen in decades.
09:56She was born into hardship,
09:58which means she carries
09:59the kind of resilience
10:00that could anchor him.
10:02The bond will serve him well
10:03in the next life.
10:04Kaelin and Vivian arrived quickly
10:06once word spread.
10:07They walked in together
10:08to find me sitting
10:09at the matriarch's feet,
10:10working the tension
10:11from her ankles.
10:12Kaelin's voice came first,
10:13amused, sharp.
10:15This is the female
10:16who agreed to bond
10:16with my brother?
10:17Whoever's handmaid she is,
10:19she has a rare heart.
10:20Mother, you must reward her well.
10:22I turned and faced them.
10:23Kaelin went very still.
10:24It's me, Alpha Kaelin,
10:26Lady Vivian's.
10:30You're supposed to be mute.
10:31I can speak.
10:32My lady simply prefers I don't.
10:35Vivian's face turned to chalk.
10:37I didn't know your household
10:38contained such a loyal soul,
10:40but once this bond is sealed,
10:41you'll carry his grief
10:42for the rest of your days.
10:44Are you certain?
10:45I will never regret it.
10:46The hand hanging at Kaelin's side
10:48curled into a fist.
10:49He stared at me like I had become
10:50something he didn't recognize.
10:52Child, tell me what you want.
10:55Silver, land, titles,
10:57anything I can grant is yours.
10:59I turned and looked at Vivian.
11:01She held her smile together,
11:02but she took half a step back.
11:04After a long pause,
11:05I dropped my eyes.
11:07I have a younger sister.
11:08Briar, I ask that she be transferred
11:09to your personal household matriarch.
11:11She's already part of this pack.
11:13I'll see to her for the rest of her life.
11:15Vivian's smile pulled thin.
11:18Mother, Briar came with my dowie pack.
11:20She's my bonded household.
11:22I'd hate to be ungenerous, but-
11:23She's a handmaid.
11:24Mother wants her.
11:26Give her over.
11:26Kaelin's voice cut across hers,
11:28flat and final.
11:29The matriarch's expression had gone stone cold.
11:32Bring the bond papers.
11:35I will find Briar a secure place before I pass.
11:39You don't have to worry about her ever again.
11:41I hadn't expected the matriarch to think about her entire future.
11:45Moved beyond words.
11:47Thank you, matriarch.
11:49I promise to care for Lucien with everything I have.
11:52When the matriarch spoke of her eldest son,
11:54she couldn't stop the break in her voice.
11:56I was pregnant with Lucien during the Dark Coven War.
12:01The fear marked him at birth.
12:03He came into the world without breath.
12:06Without a wolf spirit.
12:08His father had returned victorious that same night
12:11and brought someone with him from the deep forest.
12:13A shaman.
12:14The shaman's methods were outside anything the pack had seen.
12:17He brought Lucien back from the edge of nothing.
12:20It should have been a miracle.
12:21But the shaman warned them.
12:23Pulling a spirit back across that threshold
12:25was a transgression against the laws of wolf and moon.
12:28Lucien could live.
12:29But only for 30 years.
12:31No more.
12:31And so it had been.
12:32Lucien had grown up slight.
12:34Unable to shift into warrior form.
12:36But razor sharp in mind.
12:38A natural strategist.
12:39A scholar.
12:40He'd won council honors young.
12:42But the older he got, the weaker his body became.
12:45Eventually, he stopped leaving his territory altogether.
12:48Retreating to a lakeside cabin at the edge of the pack mansion.
12:51Since I had agreed to the spirit bond, I was to remain at his side.
12:55Word was that he didn't allow anyone to serve him.
12:58Just the shaman, who had stayed all these years.
13:01The shaman brought me into the cabin while Lucien was asleep.
13:03I looked at his face.
13:04His lashes trembled faintly with each shallow breath.
13:07He was two years older than Kaelin.
13:0927.
13:10The brothers looked nothing alike.
13:12Kaelin was bronze and hard-edged from years of combat training.
13:16Lucien was fine-boned.
13:17Pale as snow.
13:18Almost startlingly beautiful in a way that made you forget to breathe.
13:22I spent the afternoon learning his preferences.
13:24When the sun touched the horizon, Lucien finally woke.
13:27It was time for his medicine.
13:29I'd spent the afternoon learning to brew it from the shaman.
13:31So you're the female who plans to bond with my corpse?
13:34Yes.
13:35Get up.
13:36He picked up the bowl calmly.
13:41I don't want it.
13:43What are you going to do about it?
13:44Lucien looked up, a thread of provocation in his gaze.
13:47The shaman had told me Lucien was a person of pure instinct.
13:50All feeling, no armor.
13:52Earned honors at 15,
13:54and had the makings of something extraordinary ahead of him.
13:57Then one evening,
13:58a hunting trip with Kaelin
14:00ended with Lucien falling off the cliff
14:02and drowned in the water,
14:04his wolf spirit seizing,
14:05and three days of unconsciousness.
14:07The matriarch had broken every servant in his household for failing him
14:11and sold the rest.
14:13Lucien didn't treat servants like livestock.
14:15He'd read too much and thought too hard to do that.
14:19Alpha Hare,
14:22I genuinely can't force you.
14:24But since we're going to be bonded eventually, perhaps...
14:27I look down at the dark liquid.
14:29Perhaps I should start exercising a mate's authority now.
14:33Either you drink this,
14:36or...
14:36Or what?
14:38The shaman had told me Lucien had refused medicine for six months.
14:42That was why he was hovering at the edge of nothing.
14:44At this rate, he wouldn't survive to spring.
15:00When I looked at him again,
15:02vivid color had bloomed across his face,
15:04like dawn breaking over frost.
15:06Those butterfly-winged lashes were trembling.
15:08With outrage,
15:10I thought,
15:10distantly,
15:11of every arrogant she-wolf
15:13Caelan had ever teased into furious,
15:15helpless blushing.
15:16Lucien's expression was painfully similar.
15:19A prick of guilt moved through me.
15:21I forced my own pulse to slow,
15:23keeping my voice steady.
15:24If you won't drink,
15:25I'll be forced to do that again.
15:44Alpha hair.
15:45Your color has improved over these past few days.
15:47Your skin isn't as cold as it was.
15:48That's the medicine working.
15:50Medicine is useless.
15:51The shaman works hard to brew it.
15:54If you pour it out every time,
15:55he'll be heartbroken.
15:57Watch.
15:59Testing the temperature alone
16:00takes constant checking
16:02to preserve the potency.
16:03I've only been doing it a few days
16:05and my hands already look like this.
16:07He pressed his lips together,
16:09said nothing,
16:10and drank the rest of the bowl
16:11without being asked.
16:13After that,
16:13he never made me beg him
16:15to drink his medicine again.
16:18Half a month later,
16:19the shaman gave the matriarch his report.
16:21Lucien had genuinely improved,
16:23no longer at death's edge.
16:26Could it be a final surge
16:28before the end?
16:29No,
16:30it's real healing.
16:32This one is responsible.
16:34I told you before,
16:34her wolf spirit signature
16:35is a natural compliment to his.
16:37She steadies him.
16:39The matriarch looked satisfied.
16:41When she turned to me,
16:42her eyes were almost tender.
16:44How has Selina been caring for you?
16:50She's been taking very good care of me.
16:55Alpha Lucien may not know,
16:57but when Selina was serving in my household,
16:59her skill at attending to Caelan
17:01was quite exceptional as well.
17:03Such a good servant.
17:05The air went very still.
17:08Is that how you speak to your future sister-in-law?
17:11Vivian,
17:12you are young,
17:14but that is no excuse for ignorance of pack law.
17:17Shut up!
17:19Stop embarrassing yourself!
17:22Days later,
17:23did you hear about it?
17:25Vivian had found another substitute.
17:26She looked for a maid again,
17:28not from the pack's own hand-aids.
17:29She'd bought a woman from outside,
17:31trained and shaped to match her voice and build exactly.
17:34How do you know?
17:34Because Caelan lit every lantern in the room that night,
17:37and when he saw what he saw,
17:38he beat woman half to death
17:39and threw her at Vivian's feet.
17:40Vivian had fainted.
17:41And then,
17:42he said if she refused to truly share his bed,
17:44he would never come to her rooms again.
17:46They're sleeping in separate dens now.
17:48Separate dens meant every wolf in the pack
17:50knew the bond was broken.
17:52No mate's devotion.
17:53No matriarch's approval.
17:55No pups.
17:56No wonder Vivian looked like she hadn't slept in a month.
18:03He looked fragile in the lake wind,
18:06unsteadying.
18:07I went back to get his cloak.
18:13Is it you?
18:18Was it always you?
18:21Answer me.
18:23You think you can play mute with me again?
18:31Silence won't save you.
18:34I don't need your voice to confirm it.
18:37One night,
18:37and I'd know for certain.
18:39Had he lost his mind?
18:42I spent three years with a woman.
18:44And she's going to be bonded to my brother.
18:47How dare you make fools of us both?
18:50Especially me!
18:51Would a rank at my side really be worse
18:53than grieving a dead man forever?
18:55Do you actually want to bond with a corpse?
19:00I just want to survive!
19:03I just want to survive!
19:05If I didn't do this,
19:06she'd give me to someone who'd break me!
19:09A formal bond,
19:11even a broken one,
19:12would have made me untouchable.
19:15Useful to no one.
19:18Forced to stay her shadow forever.
19:20Before he could recover,
19:22I stomped hard on his foot and ran.
19:24I was still stumbling when I rounded the corner.
19:27What took you so long?
19:31I smiled,
19:32walked over,
19:33and settled the cloak around his shoulders.
19:35But he simply brushed my hand away.
19:37Somehow he lost balance and fell.
19:38His chest had a severe bruise.
19:40Just leave me.
19:41I am not your burden.
19:46Lucian liked to sit there.
19:48Open a book in the shade.
19:49Why did you really agree to the spirit bond?
19:53I didn't want to be given to the given to the gatekeeper's son.
19:57I thought it would be something like that.
19:59What is it to guess that it would be like this?
20:02The shaman pressed a small wooden box into my hands.
20:05Should I start calling you mate of the Alpha?
20:07Please don't.
20:08My future, most likely,
20:10was a silent room in a shrine,
20:12grieving him in his name until I followed.
20:15With the shaman gone,
20:16I took on more responsibility,
20:17including helping Lucian bathe.
20:23I watched his ears and tried not to smile.
20:25Had no one ever helped him bathe?
20:28Kaelin had always kept half a dozen female attendants for bathing.
20:31A younger version of me would have died of the blush alone.
20:34But I wasn't that innocent girl anymore.
20:37There was a phrase I'd found in one of his books.
20:39A broken moon.
20:40A she-wolf who'd been claimed and discarded.
20:43The text said that's what I was.
20:45What strange things are you reading now?
20:49I tucked it behind my back.
20:51I'd memorized a passage and presented it to him like a prize.
20:55Look at you. Impressive.
20:57You sound like you're humeering a child.
21:00How old are you?
21:02Eighteen.
21:03I have almost a decade on you.
21:05To me, you are a child.
21:08The shaman had introduced new compounds,
21:11performed old rituals at the edge of firelight,
21:14burned offerings, and whispered things I didn't catch.
21:17Speak a wish.
21:19You do it.
21:21I want you to be happy.
21:23What does that look like?
21:24Your body heals.
21:25You find a mate who deserves you.
21:27A pack of your own.
21:29A life that finally goes the way it should have.
21:32Do you mean that?
21:33Our eyes met.
21:34I looked away.
21:35Did I mean it?
21:36It didn't matter.
21:37What mattered was,
21:38the shaman's ritual apparently worked,
21:40because Lucien decided he wanted to leave the cabin.
21:43I asked him where he wanted to go.
21:45He studied me for a long moment.
21:47There's a moon festival gathering tonight.
21:49I've heard the town lights the whole river.
21:51Festival fires were always burning somewhere.
21:54Nothing special.
21:54But since coming into Vivienne's household,
21:57I hadn't been to a single one.
21:58The longing had been sitting quietly in me for years.
22:01That night, a young noblewoman arrived with her escort.
22:04They said, used to getting everything she reached for.
22:07In the river of lantern light and moving bodies,
22:09she found Lucien in seconds.
22:11Loser buys dinner at the finest inn in the city.
22:13What do you say?
22:14And she walked straight up
22:15and challenged him to a game of darts.
22:17I've forgotten who won.
22:18I only remember the brightness in her eyes.
22:21Lucien turned to look at me.
22:23If you'd like to go, I'll wait outside.
22:25I hadn't behaved like a servant in front of him in a long time,
22:29but there were others watching.
22:30She didn't wait.
22:31She stepped around me cheerfully
22:32and reached for Lucien's chair.
22:34I watched them move into the crowd,
22:36and I felt something leave me
22:37that I hadn't known was mine to lose.
22:39I stood in the cold for a very long time.
22:42Then I remembered.
22:43Today was my birthday.
22:44She was the regent's only daughter.
22:46Every door in the wolf world was open to her.
22:48When the regent and his mate arrived at the pack mansion
22:51to formally propose the match,
22:53the matriarch looked more shaken than pleased.
22:56Through Briar, I learned the truth.
22:57It wasn't love at first sight.
22:59She'd fallen for Lucien over a decade ago,
23:02back when he was a young scholar with fire in his eyes
23:04and a future everyone could see.
23:06She'd been carrying it ever since,
23:08refusing every other offer.
23:10Lucien's potential mating became the pack's entire focus.
23:13Even the news that Kaylin's quartermate had conceived was forgotten.
23:16If the match succeeded,
23:18the matriarch would have been overjoyed.
23:20But Lucien was already bound by the spirit bond.
23:22To take a living mate,
23:24the bond had to be dissolved.
23:25And so I knew exactly what I had to do.
23:28Just as I'd once knelt before the matriarch and volunteered,
23:31I came before her again.
23:34I'm willing to step aside.
23:36I want Lucien to have this.
23:39I'd had the shaman check their spirit signatures as well.
23:42They aligned perfectly.
23:43She was born to rank, polished in every art.
23:46And her love for Lucien had outlasted years of silence.
23:50If he died, she would grieve him faithfully.
23:52There was nothing more I could offer that she couldn't match.
23:55So, what do you want in return?
23:58Money?
23:59Is it still about status?
24:01The matriarch squeezed my hands
24:03and asked what I wanted in return.
24:04I pressed the gold I'd saved over two years into her palm.
24:08I asked to be released from the pack's bond records.
24:11I want to be a free wolf.
24:16Child, you could ask me for so much more.
24:18I held the bow and didn't move.
24:20Tears fell, one by one, onto the stone.
24:23Take me with you, okay?
24:26Outside the pack Paution, life was uncertain and hard.
24:30Inside, with the matriarch's protection, you would be safe.
24:34Stay, serve well, don't make enemies.
24:37The rest would come.
24:40Briar wept and pressed gold into my hands anyway.
24:43On the morning I left, many of the other handmaids came to see me off.
24:47The shaman also walked towards me in the crowd.
24:50May your ancestors guide your path.
24:55Patted my shoulder and then walked towards the crowd.
25:00I turned around and walked towards the door.
25:02But in the crowd, I saw Karen also there.
25:06Kaelin grabbed me to the corner.
25:07He caged me against the wall and looked at me like he wanted to devour me.
25:11Say the word and I'll take you as a formal mate.
25:17Serve me like you used to
25:18and I'll give you rank above the others.
25:21I stared at him for a long time.
25:28Don't look at me like that.
25:31What?
25:32You think Lucian's gonna come running after you?
25:34You're deluding yourself.
25:38He's probably not even thinking of you.
25:40Once his body improved, he didn't need you anymore.
25:42You were useful and now you're spare.
25:44And don't expect him to remember you in a year.
25:46He didn't even come to see you off.
25:48That tells you exactly where you rank to him.
25:52Something in my chest seized.
25:53The truth was, Lucian and I had been in a cold war for weeks.
25:57It had started on the way home from the festival.
25:59If I was happy.
26:03Yes.
26:04The warmth vanished from Lucian's face.
26:06Happy about the fireworks?
26:08No.
26:09Watching you walk with her.
26:10You look like you belong together.
26:11My wish is starting to work.
26:12That made me happy.
26:13You see me with another female and that's what makes you happy?
26:15She's extraordinary.
26:16She might become the Pax Future First Luna.
26:18Of course I'm happy.
26:19Selena.
26:21I didn't know you could be so heartless.
26:23My parents had died years ago in the household where I was born into service.
26:27I had no home to return to.
26:29I'd planned to head south.
26:31Find a city where no one knew my name.
26:33But the second Kaylin's and Vivian's faces floated up behind my eyes,
26:37I was on my feet.
26:38Booking passage on the first river ferry south.
26:41Before I'd finished the thought.
26:44Property deeds.
26:46Golds.
26:47A house.
26:47A plot of land.
26:48Somewhere in the south.
26:50I tried to remember when the shaman had touched my bag.
26:53He'd had his hands on it during the send off.
26:56But where had he gotten this?
26:57The ferry listed suddenly.
26:59I nearly went over the rail.
27:02I scrambled upright and found boots surrounding me on three sides.
27:06Then I was bound, carried ashore, and pushed into a carriage.
27:11When the blindfold came down...
27:18Vivian, smiling.
27:20I couldn't stop the bitter laugh from escaping.
27:22Briar had been right.
27:24For all the years I'd served her, and this was still where we ended up,
27:27they brought out women with strong hands to deal with me.
27:30The blows were professional and thorough.
27:32She'd grown thinner since I last saw her.
27:35The delicate elegance that had once made her untouchable now just made her look breakable.
27:40What it didn't do was protect her inside the pack.
27:44I used your body as a convenience, and you had the nerve to find your own way out.
27:49Ungrateful.
27:50Traitorous.
27:51Have you forgotten what you swore?
27:53Loyal service.
27:55Always.
27:56Loyal service.
27:57She wasn't wrong.
27:58But loyalty is a two-way bond, and she had never honored her half.
28:02Waited for the anger to burn out so I could leave.
28:05I overestimated her capacity for mercy.
28:07The first day.
28:09Only the hitting.
28:10Look at me.
28:12The second day, she used silver-tipped needles on my hand.
28:16The third day, she locked me in the holding den beneath the estate.
28:19I found my parents' remains there.
28:21For a moment, just one, I genuinely wanted to stop fighting.
28:25The young guard outside pulled me up before I could follow the thought all the way.
28:29Delina, come back!
28:30Please!
28:31You saved me!
28:32Do I know you?
28:34Years ago, a bracelet went missing in the ladies' rooms.
28:37They were going to use me as the culprit.
28:39You figured out who really took it, and you bought me enough time to prove it.
28:43I kept all my fingers because of you.
28:45You're one of the kindest people I've ever known.
28:47Why is she doing this to you?
28:49Because I wasn't loyal enough.
28:52What's happening at the pack mansion?
28:54The alpha-haired...
28:56Is he truly going to bond with the regent's daughter?
28:58The matriarch is frantic.
29:00The whole bonding is off.
29:01The regent's family pulled their daughter out the night his wolf spirit nearly went dark completely.
29:06She agreed to cancel it?
29:08She's never been this close to real death before.
29:11They say she ran.
29:12Selene, please stop thinking about them.
29:14Think about yourself.
29:15You have to survive long enough to be rescued.
29:17Will you let me help you?
29:18Please help me bury my parents.
29:20Is there anything else I can do for you after that?
29:22I need you to find a small wooden box.
29:25You buried my parents.
29:27I'll carry that gratitude into whatever comes next.
29:30On the fifth evening, Vivian returned.
29:33She examined her nails, as if nothing else mattered.
29:35I could barely hold my head up.
29:37You're still alive.
29:39Heaven must want you to suffer longer.
29:42Begging me to stop?
29:43Don't bother.
29:45I wasn't begging.
29:46I was cursing her.
29:48Quietly.
29:48Steadily.
29:49The rope around my neck tightened.
29:50I let out a slow breath.
29:52Finally.
29:53A clean ending.
29:54It pulled taut.
29:55Tighter.
29:56Until the air was gone.
29:58Then, it went slack.
30:00A second cruelty?
30:02Another method?
30:03Noise poured in from every direction.
30:05Someone was calling my name.
30:06Someone was in the water.
30:08Selene!
30:09Selene!
30:14I'm sorry.
30:15I'm sorry.
30:16Please don't leave me.
30:19I was lifted.
30:20Carried.
30:21Fast.
30:21Too fast.
30:22And then I hid a cold chest and stayed there.
30:25Whoever held me dropped to their knees.
30:27Their arms locked around me like I might disappear.
30:32Lucian.
30:34Where are you?
30:35I am here.
30:36I am here.
30:37I thought I had lost you.
30:39Selene.
30:40I'm so sorry.
30:42I should have found you sooner.
30:46Lucian brought me back to the lakeside cabin.
30:49The shaman had prepared a medicinal bath.
30:51Something old.
30:52Something meant for deep wounds.
30:54Lucian washed me himself.
30:55Every new injury he found made the skin around his eyes darken.
31:00Deeper.
31:01Redder.
31:01In the blur between waking and sleep, I felt like I was drifting.
31:05Held up by careful hands in warm water.
31:08Rocking.
31:09Gently.
31:10The last thing I remembered was a soft bed rising up to catch me.
31:15And my arms closing around it.
31:17I slept for a very long time.
31:27Where's Lucian?
31:28He kept watch over you for days.
31:30I added something to his tea.
31:32He's out.
31:33Is he having an episode?
31:34His wolf spirit?
31:35He's been destroying himself since you left.
31:37His wolf didn't want to be steady.
31:39I couldn't do much.
31:40You were the only person keeping him anchored.
31:42That was never me.
31:44Don't cry.
31:45He's alive.
31:46And he won't die before 30.
31:48I made sure of that much.
31:50What happens at 30?
31:51Does the bond snap?
31:53He was always going to die early.
31:54You know this.
31:55If he weren't fated for early death, you two would never have found each other.
31:58I sat very still.
32:01Something inside me was splitting apart.
32:04Lucian woke to find me staring into nothing.
32:07What's wrong?
32:08His voice came out rough with sleep.
32:10I wiped my face.
32:11Said nothing.
32:12My fingers rested against his throat.
32:15Feeling his pulse.
32:16I'm going to kiss you.
32:18Say yes or no.
32:21You were a lot less polite the first time.
32:27His mouth was cold and his breath against mine was like a thread of warmth and a blizzard.
32:33Brief and so easy to lose.
32:38Lucian, I love you.
32:43I love you too.
32:50I never expected to fall in love with someone within such short life.
32:56Neither did I.
32:59Then the shaman came back.
33:00He returned three nights later, moving with purpose, and sat across from us.
33:05I've been doing a great deal of thinking.
33:08That's usually ominous.
33:09The curse on you.
33:11The life debt your father made with the witch clan.
33:13It was sealed with sacrifice.
33:15Specifically, the sacrifice of a wolf spirit.
33:18Sacrifice can be answered with sacrifice.
33:21Or with something equal and opposite.
33:23A bond freely chosen.
33:24A mating bond.
33:26A true one.
33:27Not a spirit bond with a corpse.
33:29A living, breathing, voluntary mating bond.
33:32Freely given, both sides willing, under the full moon.
33:35If the bond takes hold,
33:38the original sacrifice is fulfilled differently.
33:41Life for life.
33:43But instead of taking,
33:44it gives.
33:46The curse breaks.
33:48Has this worked before?
33:49I believe it will.
33:53Yes.
33:55The next few days passed in controlled chaos.
33:57The matriarch convened a pack circle.
34:00Vivian's crimes had not gone unnoticed.
34:02The poisoning of Kaylin's quartermate and the unborn pup had been confirmed.
34:06By pack law, that was grounds for exile.
34:09Vivian was removed.
34:10Quietly.
34:11Finally.
34:11The regent's daughter came to the cabin one more time.
34:14He told me at the festival, you know.
34:16The night we went to dinner.
34:17What to say?
34:19He talked about you for three hours straight without realizing it.
34:22I'm sorry I was slow to understand.
34:24Her expression unreadable.
34:26I didn't know what to say.
34:28She stepped forward and squeezed my hand once.
34:30Don't let him die.
34:32Then she was gone.
34:38Kaylin came to the cabin the night before the ritual.
34:40He stood in the doorway,
34:41and for the first time in the years I've known him,
34:44he looked genuinely lost.
34:47My brother.
34:49He's going to be all right?
34:51The shaman believes so.
34:54I never saw you.
34:55Do you know?
34:57For three years,
34:59I've actually never given you a proper look.
35:02For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry.
35:04I thought about everything I could say.
35:06What I said was,
35:09Take care of yourself, Kaylin.
35:12He nodded, turned, walked away.
35:15It wasn't forgiveness.
35:17Not yet.
35:19But it was a beginning.
35:21The full moon rose over the lake like a white flame.
35:24The shaman built the circle at the water's edge.
35:26Silver dust, wolf herbs, old fire.
35:29Lucian stood at the center.
35:31He'd refused the chair tonight.
35:32He was standing on his own, in the moonlight.
35:35And the sight of him,
35:36pale and slight,
35:38and stubbornly, impossibly upright,
35:40hit me somewhere I didn't have words for.
35:43The shaman's voice rose over the water,
35:45speaking old words in the witch clan's tongue.
35:48The language of the curse
35:49that had been turned tonight into something else.
35:52He looked at me with those moth-winged lashes
35:54and that expression that always meant
35:55he'd run out of arguments
35:57and was trying not to show how much he felt.
36:00Selene, you don't have to.
36:02I know.
36:04I might still...
36:06I know that too.
36:08Then what are you doing?
36:12Choosing.
36:12The shaman's voice peaked.
36:14The circle ignited.
36:16Not fire, exactly.
36:17Something older.
36:18Silver blue,
36:20rising from the water's surface.
36:21I felt the pull of it in my chest.
36:23Not pain.
36:24Not fear.
36:25Something more like...
36:27recognition.
36:28Lucian's hand tightened on mine.
36:30And I felt the moment it happened.
36:31A snap,
36:32deep in the core of me,
36:34like a lock giving way.
36:35Like something that had been held closed
36:37for 30 years finally opening.
36:39Lucian made a sound
36:40I'd never heard from him before.
36:42Not pain.
36:43The opposite of pain.
36:44He dropped to his knees
36:45in the silver circle.
36:47And his wolf,
36:48his wolf spirit,
36:49which I had never seen,
36:51which he had never been able to fully call,
36:53tore out of him
36:54with a howl that shook the lake.
36:56White,
36:56enormous,
36:57blazing like a comet above the water.
36:59He threw his head back
37:01and howled again.
37:02The sound broke over the forest,
37:04over the pack mansion,
37:06over every territory for miles.
37:08And from far away,
37:09from every direction at once,
37:11howls began to answer.
37:13The shaman wept.
37:14I didn't realize it
37:15until I saw his shoulders shaking.
37:17Lucian's wolf settled around him
37:19like a second skin.
37:20The color returned to his face.
37:22Not the brief flush of fever,
37:24but real warmth,
37:25steady,
37:25and permanent.
37:26He touched his own hands
37:28like he was checking they were real.
37:29Then he looked at me.
37:30And his eyes,
37:32those beautiful,
37:33exhausted,
37:34fighting to stay open eyes,
37:36were the clearest I'd ever seen them.
37:39Selena.
37:40Just my name.
37:42The way he said it
37:43cracked something open in me.
37:44I pressed my face against his chest
37:47and stayed there
37:47for a long, long time.
37:49His heartbeat was strong,
37:51steady,
37:52warm,
37:53not borrowed time.
37:55Just him.
37:57The matriarch came to the lake
37:59the next morning.
37:59She took one look at Lucian,
38:01standing in the early light,
38:03no chair,
38:04no shawl,
38:05real color in his face.
38:06And she sat down
38:07on the nearest bench
38:08and didn't move
38:09for several minutes.
38:10How?
38:11Thanks to Selena,
38:12who sacrificed herself willingly.
38:15She was a good girl.
38:16The shaman explained
38:17what had happened.
38:19Then she reached out
38:20and drew me to sit beside her
38:22as she'd done before.
38:23What do you want?
38:25I once hoped my sister
38:27would be safe
38:27and that I could be free.
38:28But now,
38:30all I want
38:31is for Lucian
38:32to return as leader,
38:33safe and happy.
38:35It happened
38:36at the next full moon.
38:37Briar stood beside me.
38:41It's already more than enough.
38:43You have a thread.
38:44Right there.
38:45Hold.
38:46Briar.
38:48What?
38:55Lucian was waiting
38:56at the lake's edge.
38:57He'd learned to stand
38:58like he meant it.
39:00May your life together
39:02be filled with love,
39:03laughter,
39:03and happiness.
39:05May your home
39:06always be warm
39:07and your hearts
39:08always full.
39:09I had survived
39:10every single thing
39:12and I was here,
39:13free,
39:14loved,
39:15his mate,
39:16and mine.
39:22Selena,
39:23I'm not going to die.
39:24I'm not going to die.
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